The Pacific Rim Roamer (PRR) is a regular visitor to countries in Asia and the Pacific, but he finds that mobile coverage is patchy in the most surprising places – Auckland’s CBD and the suburbs of Newmarket, Chatswood and Birkenhead. A savvy wi-fi user, he never makes calls or uses mobile data when he’s out of town: “International data roaming is far too expensive for my mobile.”

DiagnosisThe PRR knows where to go to get the wi-fi he needs to connect in all the towns and cities he visits overseas. A heavy user of data – both on his mobile and his laptop, he’d rather spend local money at a cafe for his Internet connection than pay a telco back home. But what if he did want to make the odd call while in foreign parts – is there a provider who can offer a cheap service?

PrescriptionData is out of consideration on current mobile pricing plans for the PRR. He might be a big user, but he doesn’t want to be a big spender. So the Doctor weighed up the plans for calls/texts and came out in favour of Vodafone. The texter 1100 plan at $369.65 a month caters roughly to his calling/texting needs while in New Zealand. His roaming profile however puts him in three different calling zones, although most of the countries he visits are in Zone 3 – for which he’s charged $3.43 a minute to make a call. If he thought it might be worth it to carry a 2degrees SIM card in his pocket, he’d be wrong – in the countries other than Australia that he frequents the rates are between $3.39 a and $4.39 a minute. Oh dear, best stick to wi-fi for now.

Mobile devices                        iPhone 3G, MacBook AirMobile minutes                       Around 1000Texts sent in NZ                     700Texts sent overseas                 100Mobile data use                       Heavy user - Web browsing, music, entertainment and social networking sites.Laptop data use                       Downloads documents, photos and videos.Regular overseas destinations    China, India, USA, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Fiji, Australia